Gen Y moms prefer digital, rather than face-to-face, communication more than their older cohorts.

Mothers are more connected online than the average woman, with younger moms especially committed to digital communication, says a report examining moms and online behavior. More than 90 percent of U.S. women with children under age 18 in the household are online, compared with roughly three-quarters (76.3 percent) of all adult women. Mothers of Generation Y, however, are even more involved in online communication than their older counterparts, with nearly one in five (17 percent) stating that they use email or Facebook to communicate with immediate family—with “immediate family” defined as family members living in the same household.

While Baby Boomer moms said that they communicated with family members in person most of the time (an average of 62 percent face-to-face communication), Generation X mothers stated they do so 58 percent of the time, says the report. Gen Y moms said that their face-to-face communication with immediate family averages just less than half the time at 48 percent. Boomer moms are also less likely to use Facebook as often as their younger cohorts do, while one in five (19 percent) of Gen Y moms reported that they spend at least two hours a day on the social networking site.

Marketing consultant Dr. Scott Testa, also a professor of business administration at Philadelphia-based Cabrini College, says that he has also observed this fast-moving trend.

“Generation [Y] and [the mom] demographic is rapidly moving to electronic media,” he notes. “In order to reach these moms [companies] need to go digital.”

Singer warns marketers to not be too complacent when it comes to reaching out via social media.

“Too many marketers are sitting back and waiting to see how social media pans out, as though it’s a temporary phenomenon,” she explains. “But it’s as permanent and as influential as TV was in its infancy, and it will grow even more important. The more quickly that marketing executives learn to harness social media, the more likely they’ll come out ahead because of it.”

Testa agrees. “It is not a fad,” he adds. “Those companies that really get it could really target [this group] effectively.”

http://www.demodirt.com/index.php/generation-y-trends/consumer-spending/433-digital-age